Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Hi guys,

I hope all smoking is going well for everyone. I've had my YS640 a little over a year and am still having problems with my briskets. They're never bad, for the most part good but never something I'm completely proud of.

One of my main concerns is the lack of smoke flavor the briskets are getting. I have friends that say"your briskets are good but it doesn't have that real smoke flavor." They claim you can tell it was smoked with pellets. Now every time someone says that, I want to punch them in the face. I'm a nice guy so I never do and also because secretly I know they're right.

My briskets do not taste like it came of a good ole' fashion stick burner. I have plenty of faith in my YS640 and know it HAS to be me. That being said, I've watched countless videos and read many threads on here. I've tried many different methods and temp.

Everyone, I am open to any advice you want to send my way. At this point I'm desperate and not sure what I should do.

Thank you for your time!

Here are some brisket videos that are done on a Yoder pellet: http://thesauce.atbbq.com/?s=brisket

With an offset cooker, the fire management is entirely up to the cook, and as such, more than likely, causes the fire to never really optimum. This causes more unburned wood solids to be pushed through the cooker, which end up on the meat. This manifests itself as a thicker, whitish smoke. This type of smoke is what causes the heavy smoke flavor, which can be bitter and acrid. This "taste" is caused by the unburned wood solids accumulating on the meat, as a dark color layer, and is what is commonly called creosote.

Yoder Smokers first specialized in offset cookers that are designed to allow better and easier fire management. This fire management allows the cook to achieve the transparent, bluish smoke of the perfect fire. The Yoder pellet cookers were designed to do this exact same thing, provide the perfect, transparent, bluish smoke, without having to manage the fire. Unlike an offset cooker, it is impossible to create anything other than this transparent blue smoke from a Yoder pellet cooker.

For those that feel the need to more mimic the dirty smoke from a poorly managed offset pit fire, to get the unburned wood solids onto the meat, with the resultant "taste", there are smoke generators and other products, that will provide this thicker, whitish smoke that accomplishes the task of depositing creosote on what is cooking.

I think the last post hits all the right points. Being a Wichita and a YS480 owner I can tell you all meats cook entirely different on each unit. I, personally, prefer the Wichita for big cuts only and use the pellet for chicken and ribs.

With that said, I've found ways to make the pellet grill emulate that taste much better. First, use some hardwood (hickory or mesquite) for your pellets. Start the first part of your cook really low. It seems like the unit might run less efficiently at a really low temp as it tries to compensate. The result is more smoke. After a couple of hours, then dial it back up to 235 or so. If you're not opposed to spending money, then look at purchasing an amazn tube pellet smoke device. It works great.

Herb hit on it appropriately. That simple fact of difficulty in fire management is why I bought the Yoder. I don't possess the skills, nor do I have the time to tend a fire box with logs for 8+ hours. I spent a lot of time looking at offset smokers, boxes, those big ceramic ones that will remain nameless and decided it wasn't what I wanted. I had a WSM and the results were not BAD but I wanted better. I was getting that blackened caked exterior on briskets and shoulders. To some degree even ribs.

I absolutely cannot stand that common creosote flavor (that people like to call bark) on the outside of my food. It's bitter. There's more than enough smoke flavor on the few short things I've cooked and I haven't even gotten into some of the heavier woods yet.

To each their own. If that's something you're looking for, they make all kinds of smoking tubes and attachments you can add on to the pit to give you that robust smoke flavor.